Architecture Archives - Page 4 of 8

#139: Lincoln Heights Branch Library (Lincoln Heights)

February 19, 2023

The Lincoln Heights Branch library is one of six branches of the Los Angeles Public Library system funded by a grant from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Built in 1916, its growth has paralleled that of the neighborhood surrounding it.

#138: Greystone Mansion/Doheny Estate (Beverly Hills)

February 16, 2023

Architecture

This 55-room mansion in Beverly Hills was designed by Gordon Kaufmann for oil heir Ned Doheny and his family. Over the years it has been a residence and a public park; a popular place to get married or hold a fashion shoot; the site of a still-controversial murder-suicide case; a film school where David Lynch and Paul Schrader honed their chops; and the location of Beverly Hills' largest reservoir.

#137: William N. Monroe House (“The Oaks” – Monrovia)

February 9, 2023

Architecture

The Oaks is a lovely Queen Anne Victorian built in 1885 for the co-founder and first mayor of Monrovia, railroad contractor William N. Monroe. It was just the second house built in Monrovia, which wouldn't be incorporated as a city until two years later.

#136: Villa Francesca (Palos Verdes)

January 31, 2023

Architecture

This lovely Mediterranean revival compound in Rancho Palos Verdes was the longtime home of Harry E. Benedict, one of the peninsula's early developers. Though the Great Depression prevented the completion of a planned mansion, the gate lodge and farmstead still stand as fine examples of renowned architect Gordon Kaufmann's work.

#134: Venice of America House (Venice)

January 9, 2023

Architecture

This quirky Victorian home in Venice is one of the last residential vestiges of Venice of America: a planned resort community designed by Abbot Kinney in the early 1900s.

#132: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Millard House (Pasadena)

December 28, 2022

Architecture

The Millard House (aka "La Miniatura") was the first of Frank Lloyd Wright's four textile block homes in Los Angeles. It marked a radical new phase in Wright's architecture, an attempt to democratize housing by ennobling the humble concrete block as a building material. It was also a remarkable integration of site and building that still stuns a century later.

#131: Petitfils-Boos Residence (Hancock Park/Windsor Square)

December 23, 2022

Architecture

The Petitfils-Boos Residence is a killer (and somewhat rare) example of the refined Italian renaissance revival style applied to a single-family home. It's also got a peculiar history involving the first proper cafeteria in LA, an abandoned chocolate shop covered in exquisite brown tiles, and a case of mansion-swapping among old friends.

#130: Jennie A. Reeve House (Greene & Greene – Long Beach)

December 15, 2022

Architecture

This 1904 commission in Long Beach was a significant one for architects Charles & Henry Greene, because it integrated so many of the creative features that they had experimented with but never harmonized into a single building. Their approach here pointed the way to later masterpieces like the Gamble House, Blacker House and Thorsen House.

Five Historic Houses That Even Your Kids Will Love

December 12, 2022

Architecture

LA is full of cool-ass old buildings that offer plenty for both architecture buffs and the young' uns. Here's my "trail" guide to historic LA houses kids will love.

#129: The Lummis House/”El Alisal” (Highland Park)

December 9, 2022

Architecture

The Lummis House (aka El Alisal) in Highland Park is a playful castle-like structure of stone, cement and telephone poles (!), hand-built by one of the most colorful figures in LA history, Charles Lummis. You can appreciate it for its architectural uniqueness, or as a 3D manifestation of Lummis's philosophy. Either way, it's one of my favorite LA landmarks.

#127: Grace Nicholson Building / Pacific Asia Museum (Pasadena)

November 21, 2022

Architecture

The USC Pacific Asia Museum continues the legacy of Grace Nicholson, who built this remarkable Chinese building in 1925 to house her massive collection of Asian and Native American art and artifacts.

#126: Richard Neutra’s Strathmore Apartments (Westwood)

November 12, 2022

Architecture

The Strathmore Apartments are one of four complexes designed in Westwood by famed modernist architect Richard Neutra. With its unadorned white stucco walls, flat roofs and long rows of ribbon windows, the Strathmore is quintessential international style. It's also surprisingly a plant lover's paradise, and a great example of Neutra's ability to design spaces that respond to the needs of his occupants with unfussy grace.

#124: Aztec Hotel (Monrovia)

October 30, 2022

Architecture

Ghosts! Hookers! Cultural appropriation! They're all part of the fascinating history of the Aztec Hotel, an eye-popping 1925 Mayan revival hotel in Monrovia (now closed) designed by the idiosyncratic architect Robert Stacy-Judd.

#123: Natural History Museum (Exposition Park)

October 23, 2022

Architecture

The Natural History Museum is justifiably famous for its awe-inspiring dinosaur skeletons and taxidermied animals. But did you know it was also an art museum for 50 years? Or that Exposition Park was once a hotbed of illicit activity like drinking, gambling and...camel racing?

#120-122: Garment District High-Rises (Downtown)

October 10, 2022

Architecture

The 1920s-era Garment Capitol Building, Textile Center Building and Maxfield Lofts each have their own thing going for them aesthetically. And they each capture a unique period in the economic and architectural development of the Garment District in downtown LA, which remains one of the city's economic engines to this day.